churchyard, occupies a neck of land bounded by two becks flowing in steep-sided ravines which contain several natural strong-running springs. One of these at NY 649/292 is so voluminous and reliable that in recent years it has been capped as a farm supply. In a copse at NY 657/292 there is yet another spring. This is known as Keld Well and is believed by Page to have had religious significance as a place of pilgrimage. A second possibility for a site of settlement is the curious wiggle in Low Street at the point where the road from Newbiggin crosses to enter the outskirts of the present village. This might well be the fossil record of some sort of hamlet. It seems possible, therefore, that the unusual coherence of the layout of Milburn on its present site arises from the fact that when settlement finally took place the site was still largely or wholly undeveloped. This further suggests a concerted, motivated development. According to Butterworth, the first documentary reference to "Milburn" dates from 1200/1 when King John (1199–1215) granted the forest of Milburn to William de Stuteville, Lord of the Barony of Cottingham near Hull. The term "forest" in this context refers to an area suitable for hunting rather than forestry in its modern sense. Of course, this in no sense implies that the modern village dates from this period, nor that there was necessarily a "Burn" and a "Mill" here. Goodchild argues that the name is actually derived from Mil Borran, meaning a stone by a Roman road. Curiously on the edge of the road at the entrance to the lonning leading to the church at NY65360/29165 there is an ancient stone which is registered on the Sites and Monuments Record (SMR) as a cross base. Nevertheless, there was evidently a settlement somewhere in the vicinity which projected at least the continuity of its name into modern times. The prospect of planned settlement actually arises rather earlier with an entry in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle for 1092 which refers to King William (Rufus) travelling north to Carlisle with a large army, restoring the town, raising the castle and driving out Dolfin who earlier had ruled the land there. It goes on to say: "[He] afterwards returned south here and sent very many peasants there with women and with livestock to live there to till that land." Whatever the precise stimulus and